1 Corinthians 7:20 - Live Your Calling

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Context

Live Your Calling
…19Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts. 20Each one should remain in the situation he was in when he was called. 21Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it concern you—but if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity.…

Cross References

1 Corinthians 7:21
Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it concern you--but if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity.1 Corinthians 7:24
Brothers, each one should remain in the situation he was in when God called him.

1 Corinthians 7:17,21-23
But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches…

Proverbs 27:8
As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

Luke 3:10-14
And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? …

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1 Corinthians 7

1. He discusses marriage;
4. showing it to be a remedy against sinful desires,
10. and that the bond thereof ought not lightly to be dissolved.
20. Every man must be content with his vocation.
25. Virginity wherefore to be embraced;
35. and for what respects we may either marry, or abstain from marrying.

(20) Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.--This is an emphatic repetition of the principle on which the previous practical instruction is based. "Calling" must not here be regarded in the modern sense of profession or condition in life; it is nowhere so used in the New Testament, but always signifies God's calling of us. (See Romans 11:29; Ephesians 1:18.) Continue to be Christians of the kind which God's call to Christianity made you. If you were circumcised--and so God's call into the Christian Church made you a circumcised Christian--continue so; don't do anything which would seem to imply that some other change in addition to your "call" was necessary to complete your admission to the Church.

Verse 20. - Let every man abide in the same calling, etc. In accordance with this general principle, which illustrates the distinction between Christianity and violent social revolutions, St. John the Baptist had not bidden publicans or soldiers to abandon their callings, but to do their duty in that state of life to which God had called them (Luke 3:12-14). The "calling" alluded to is not what is described as "a vocation," a calling in life, but the condition in which we are when we are called by God (comp. 1 Corinthians 1:26; Ephesians 1:18; Ephesians 4:1). Parallel Commentaries ...

Greek

Each [one]
Ἕκαστος (Hekastos)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1538: Each (of more than two), every one. As if a superlative of hekas; each or every.

should remain
μενέτω (menetō)
Verb - Present Imperative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 3306: To remain, abide, stay, wait; with acc: I wait for, await. A primary verb; to stay.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

the
τῇ (tē)
Article - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

situation
κλήσει (klēsei)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2821: A calling, invitation; in the NT, always of a divine call. From a shorter form of kaleo; an invitation.

[he was] in
ᾗ (hē)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3739: Who, which, what, that.

when he was called.
ἐκλήθη (eklēthē)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2564: (a) I call, summon, invite, (b) I call, name. Akin to the base of keleuo; to 'call'.

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1 Corinthians 7:20 Catholic BibleNT Letters: 1 Corinthians 7:20 Let each man stay in that calling (1 Cor. 1C iC 1Cor i cor icor)